This invention relates generally to the field of eyeglass construction, and specifically to a method of attaching a customizable, replaceable, nosepiece to an eyeglass frame.
Eyeglasses must be fitted to the wearer's face. There are many adjustments and measurements that must be made to accomodate the prescription of the wearer, and to insure that the eyeglasses will be comfortable. Among these adjustments are the width of the frame, the pupil separation, the length of the temples, the pantoscopic angle, and the shape and size of the nosepiece. The glasses are supported on the wearer's face by resting on the bridge of the wearer's nose, and by the temples which rest upon the wearer's ears. Because most of the weight of the glasses is in the lenses, most of the weight of glasses rests upon the wearer's nose. In the case of spectacles having glass lenses, with a high magnification prescription, this weight can be considerable.
It is known to provide a nosepiece to distribute the weight of the eyeglasses. With plastic rim glasses, a nose support is often integrally molded with the frame, being positioned near the juncture of the eyewires. A major drawback with this design, is that once manufactured, the frame cannot be customized to the particular wearer's nose. Therefore, in order to provide a wide variety of frames, and to be able to accomodate the wide variety of nose shapes and sizes of the populace, an optometrist must stock a large number of eyeglass frames. In practice, rather than providing for many different accomodations with respect to nose size and shape, each frame size and style has its own nosepiece size and style, and the user is faced with little opportunity for customization. As a result, many sizes and styles of eyeglasses are uncomfortable for many wearers.
It is also known to provide nosepieces that are attached to the frame with an attachment that permits slight manipulation. For instance, the standard nosepieces on wire frame glasses consist of disk-like pads attached through a swivel to a metal wire which is welded to the eyewires. The swivel adjusts to a small degree, and further, the metal wire may be carefully bent and shaped to accommodate the shape of the wearer's nose. A drawback of this systems is that the metal wire is fragile, and often becomes bent or broken. Thus, it may not be used in safety spectacles, which must be used under harsh conditions and often experience severe impacts. Further, adjustment is difficult and requires special tools and expertise. Additionally, the nose pads concentrate the weight of the glasses on two spots on either side of the nose. In the case of heavy glasses, this sometimes causes irritation and may be very uncomfortable. Finally, this system is not well suited to plastic frame glasses, which must be used for safety glasses, and which have better durability and provide an opportunity for stylistic variations.
Thus, several of the objects of our invention are: to provide a replaceable nosepiece in a plastic eyeglass frame; to provide a replaceable nosepiece for glasses that may be manufactured in a wide variety of preselected shapes and that may be formed into custom fitted shapes; to provide such a device where customizing the nosepiece fit of the eyeglasses may be easily and quickly accomplished without special skills or tools; to provide a replaceable nosepiece that distributes the weight of the glass as evenly and comfortably as possible upon the wearer's nose; and to provide a replaceable nosepiece that will stay in place under impacts experienced by safety spectacles.